Stepashin spoke about Putin's visits to his sick father in 1998.

After becoming head of the FSB in 1998, Russian President Vladimir Putin asked for permission to travel to St. Petersburg every weekend to visit his seriously ill father. This was announced on February 21 by Sergei Stepashin, the former Prime Minister of Russia, who was then the head of the Interior Ministry.

According to Stepashin, Putin addressed a corresponding request to then-President Boris Yeltsin.

"Few people know: when Vladimir Putin was appointed director of the FSB, he was the only thing President Yeltsin asked for (Putin and I were in very close relations at the time): so that he could travel to St. Petersburg every weekend," he told TASS.

Stepashin noted that the head of state personally took care of his father during his illness.

"[Putin] says his father was seriously ill, and he came every weekend. And, in fact, I was an orderly for two days. This is not a game. He is such a person," the former prime minister added.

The news is being updated